34 Breed Notes – SKC 2019

At SKC Sue Wilkes (Dakaraikees) was judging Keesies without CC’s and had drawn an entry of 10 dogs with just one absentee. Best Dog was Karen & Ronnie Shepherd’s Lyntova I Am Legend (IKC) ShCM (Cedarhills-Shamrock Foreign Correspondent x Lyntova Midnight Dream) from Post Graduate with the Reserve Best Dog going to the winner of Special Beginners Shirley Johnston’s Vanstrand Thunderball at Caraspitz (Ednaaron Hawkweed of Vanstrand x Leazehond Starshine Galaxy for Vanstrand)

Best Bitch with Best of Breed went to Wendy Mckean’s Kichigai This Girl Is Mine at Yawren (Bert von Ricara (imp Den) x Kichigai Special Edition) with Reserve Best Bitch (& Best Veteran) going to the Divers’ Ir Ch Kichigai Rare Edition at Murmansk (Natlou’s Young Pretender to Kichigai x Samkees One More Kiss to Kichigai (imp Malt))

Best Puppy was Angela McCoy’s Rossvale Hidden Agenda (Zandvoort Purrsonal Life x Ch Rossvale hidden Destiny) Jane & Sophie (Ir Ch Kichigai Rare Edition at Murmansk ) went on to win a third place in the Veteran stakes under Judge Ann Bradley

The same weekend, down at the other end of the country at Newton Abbott CS, Vikki Marshall and Ghost (Arabesque at Devonia (imp RUS)) won Best of Breed and Utility group 3 from judge Chris Toynton.

I’ve a had a few people recently asking me where is the best place to get their Keesie hip & elbow scored and how much does it cost – so here is my story!!

I started off by ringing my vet and asking how much they charged. The receptionist didn’t know, had to ask the vet on duty and I ended up being given several varying quotes – not an auspicious start. So I booked my dog in thinking I’d get it sorted on the day. To cut a very long story short, my vets was going to charge me £120 for the BVA, £395 for 5 X-rays & £210 for a General Anaesthetic making a total of £725 and all I was asked to sign before handing my dog over was the surgery’s general consent/admission form. Needless to say, I said that I wasn’t going to pay such an extortionate amount and walked out!

When I got home I spent the next few hours ringing around local vets for a quote and what an eye opener that was!! When asked what the price was for hip and elbow scoring a dog under 20k, I got either an immediate (and cheap quote) of £280 – £400 or they weren’t sure & had to find out and those prices ranged from £550 – £750. In fact at one of the practices I rang, the receptionist was so appalled at their price, she actually advised me to try elsewhere!

Surprisingly, the cheapest vets were also the only ones who went through the procedures & told me that the dog had to be microchipped and that I had to bring the dog’s KC registration papers (ensuring that the dog was registered in my name) with me. They obviously did scoring on a far more regular basis than the other more expensive practices; as all the information etc was to hand and they were far more thorough.

When you actually get to your chosen vet with your dog and KC papers, there are two BVA forms to be filled out on the day – a green one for hips and yellow one for elbows. It is up to you to check they’ve been completed correctly, as I know of several owners who have had problems and delays. The BVA will reject & return forms where any information has been altered (ie corrected misspellings etc), if the owner &/or vet hasn’t signed or dated the form or if the form submitted is not the ‘latest edition’.

Whilst on the subject of hips and elbows, to date there has been a total of 28 keesies scored since 2012 with more than half being in the last 2-3 years. Information about the scheme and the results can be found on the health web site – www.keeshondhealthmatters.co.uk